Fire again burns out business in Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Hollywood

A worker at the Bon Ami Cafe at the Emerald Plaza in Hollywood looks over the… (Joe Cavaretta / Sun Sentinel…)

September 29, 2013|By Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel

HOLLYWOOD — The state fire marshal has been asked to investigate after another suspicious fire broke out early Sunday at a shopping plaza in a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, authorities said.

The fire that destroyed two adjacent restaurants in the Emerald Center, 5650 Stirling Road, is the third overnight blaze in the plaza in less than two years.

"We have some concerns," said Hollywood Fire Rescue Division Chief Joel Medina. "We want to make sure we cover all the bases."

The blaze that gutted Achla Pita Grill and Bon Ami Café was reported about 1:20 a.m. Sunday, according to Medina.

Firefighters responded with four engines, four rescue units and two ladder trucks. They took about 20 minutes to control the blaze, Medina said. There were no reported injuries.

Both restaurants are owned by Ilan Timianski. He declined to comment Sunday as cleanup operations got underway.

Although the fires have not been accompanied by spray-painted messages or other signs that might indicate hate crimes, they have unnerved tenants of the plaza.

"It seems more than a coincidence," said Michael Katz, whose Judaica store was burned out in a December 2011 fire that was ruled arson. Surveillance video in the Judaica fire showed two men walking in the alley behind the store seconds after flames broke out.

Katz has since moved his store to another location in the plaza, which also contains a preschool, a kosher market, a realty company and a dry cleaner.

Achla Pita Grill was damaged by another fire in September 2012. In that instance, two masked arsonists in hoodies were seen on surveillance video as they splashed flammable liquid around the kitchen before igniting the blaze.

Timianski told the Sun Sentinel after that fire that the arsonists did not seem to hunt for money or other valuables. "They didn't touch anything," he said. "They came to make damage."

After his Holyland Judaica store was torched, Katz speculated that the motive "was either random vandalism or it was anti-Semitism.

"There was nothing taken. So you have to ask, 'Why focus on a place like this?'"

Ariel Livaev, owner of Allure, a hair salon adjacent to the restaurants, said Sunday he had been busy all morning advising clients with appointments that the business would be open even though water had leaked under the walls and the odor of smoke hung heavy in the air. Some showed up, others canceled, he said.